You are served with court papers and find out that a company you never heard of, say, Asset Acceptance, is suing you.They purchased the debt from your old credit card company.  In what has now become a huge industry, credit card issuers and large banks are selling the charged off debts, which is to say the debts that they can no longer show as assets on their books, to companies that them for pennies on the dollar, then try to collect them. When the deal goes down, the debt buyer receives a one page computer printout with your name, balance and account number.  No contract, no statements, no accounting of even principal and interest. In short, not enough for them to use in a lawsuit, but they debt buyers don’t care.The debt buyers know that most people do not even respond to lawsuits.   Once the debtor fails to repond, the debt buyer gets a default judgment and moves to garnish your check or levy your account.  The debt buyers and their attorneys know that they don’t actually have enough to proceed in a lawsuit if they meet resistence and, when push comes to shove, they will often dismiss their lawsuit if a response is filed.